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THE "SIX SCHOOLS" OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
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S.ad.darshana, the "Six Schools" or "Six Doctrines" of "orthodox"
Indian philosophy are the schools that accept the authority of the
Vedas and thus religiously are considered part of Hinduism. Accepting
the authority of the Vedas, however, does not mean actually using
them. Mîmâm.sâ and Vedânta are specially the schools of interpretation
of the Vedas; the other four are based on independent reasoning.
"Heterodox" schools, which reject the authority of the Vedas, are
found in separate religions, like Buddhism and Jainism, or with the
rare, reviled "materialists," whose own texts have all been lost. The
treatment follows P. T. Raju's The Philosophical Traditions of India
[University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971, p. 35].
1. Mîmâm.sâ, "Interpretation," or Pûrva Mîmâm.sâ, "Prior
Interpretation," the School of Interpretation of the Karmakân.d.a,
the "action part," or first half, of the Vedas. Mîmâm.sâ
originates fairly early, perhaps the 2nd century BC, since it is
no more than a extension of the task of explaining the Vedas, a
project that started in the Vedas themselves with the Brâhman.as.
The doctrine of the eternity of the Vedas was argued by this
school, and it mostly confined itself to promoting the sanctity
and power of the Vedas. The school later was practically absorbed
into Vedânta.
2. Vedânta, "End of the Vedas," or the Uttara Mîmâm.sâ, "Posterior
Interpretation," the School of Interpretation of the Jñanakân.d.a,
the "knowledge part," or second half, of the Vedas, i.e. the
Forest Treatises and especially the Upanis.ads. Vedânta starts
relatively late, since it picks up where the Upanis.ads leave off,
and there may be Upanis.ads as late as 200 AD. Vedânta then sets
down to interpret its fundamental texts, which include the
Upanis.ads, the Bhagavad Gîta, and the Brahma Sûtras of
Bâdarâyan.a, which were themselves written in the 1st or 2nd
century AD and might be regarded as the first document of Vedânta
itself. The variety of schools in Vedânta is indicated elsewhere,
but it is worth noting that the influence of Buddhism still seems
very strong in the classic expression of Advaita Vedânta in
Shan.kara (c.788-820). Later forms of Vedânta became steadily more
theistic and dualistic and thus approximated to Islâm rather than
to Buddhism.
3. Sânkhya, "Counting, Reckoning, Reasoning, Knowledge," the School
of Theoretical Knowledge. Sânkhya may well be the oldest school
independent of the Vedas, growing up contemporaneously with the
Upanis.ads themselves. It is argued by some that the Bhagavad Gîta
was originally a popular exposition of the doctrine of the Sânkhya
School, although the text is later dominated by theistic and
devotionalistic additions. For our purposes, the salient features
of Sânkhya doctrine are the theory of the gun.as, which was later
accepted by all orthodox philosophy, and the principle that the
self (or soul, the âtman or, in Sânkhya terminology, the purus.a)
neither affects nor is affected by the world of nature (called
prakr.ti in Sânkhya terminology). Sânkhya was originally
atheistic, with an infinite number of souls, like Jainism. In the
Gîta we see the role of Sânkhya changing from the theoretical
counterpart to Yoga (in Chapter 2) to an independent yoga in its
own right, jñanayoga (in Chapter 3). Jñanayoga in effect becomes
simply Yoga, as follows; and historically the role of Sânkhya as
the theoretical counterpart to Yoga is effectively taken over by
Vedânta.
4. Yoga, "Yoking, Vehicle, Equipment, Discipline," the School of the
Discipline of Achieving Liberation. The Yoga School is to be
carefully distinguished from disciplines that are yogas in the
general sense of the word yoga, which is any means of achieving
salvation. Thus, there are the three yogas of the Bhagavad Gîta
(jñânayoga, karmayoga, bhaktiyoga), which are meant as
classifications of all yogas, and also various yogas that are
usually part of some higher order yoga: dhyânayoga, meditation
(mentioned in the Gîta); hat.hayoga, yogic exercises; prân.ayoga,
yogic breathing; aus.adhayoga, taking drugs (not a common or
esteemed method); mantrayoga, chanting sacred words or phrases;
layayoga, the yoga of "dissolution"; etc. Tantrism employs sexual
practices for yogic purposes. The method of the Yoga School in
particular is sometimes called Râjayoga, the "royal yoga." The
Yoga School based its practice on the doctrine of the Sânkhya
School, and the aim of its methods (hat.hayoga, etc.) was to quiet
prakr.ti, nature as it exists in the body, so that, like a calm
body of water, the body can reflect the true remote and detached
nature of the purus.a, effecting liberation. The definitive and
most famous statement of Yoga doctrine was in the Yoga Sûtras of
Patañjali, perhaps in the 2nd century BC. Patañjali added a
personal God to Sânkhya doctrine; but the system is not
devotionalistic, and the God exists only as an exemplar of
detachment, not as an active or creative Deity after the manner of
Vis.n.u or Shiva.
5. Nyâya, "Analysis," the School of Logic, and
6. Vaishes.ika, "Individual Characteristics," the School of
Pluralistic Metaphysics, are closely related minor schools. The
relation of the doctrine of these schools to salvation is obscure
and secondary. They concerned themselves much more with abstract
issues of logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. Vaishes.ika in
particular held that reality was an infinite number of atom-like
entities, although these were then distinct from souls. This
pluralism is similar to the teaching of two early schools of
Buddhist philosophy, the Sautrântikas and Vaibhâs.ikas, who held
that reality consists of an infinite number of momentary entities,
the dharmas.
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THE "SIX SCHOOLS" OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
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The tradition was that there were a "Hundred Schools" of philosophy
that grew up during the [5]Spring and Autumn Period (722-481) of the
[6]Chou (Zhou^1) Dynasty (1027-256 BC). Later in the [7]Former Hàn
Dynasty (206-25 AD), the historian Szu-ma Ch'ien [Si^1ma^3 Qian^1]
(145-86 BC), in the Shih Chi [Shi^3jì], "Historical Records," the
first great systematic Chinese history, identified "Six Schools." This
classification contains the schools of historical importance but may
also artificially construct "schools" out of disparate doctrines and
thinkers. The treatment follows Fung Yu-lan's A Short History of
Chinese Philosophy [Free Press, 1948, 1966, pp. 30-31].
1. Yin-Yang Chia [Yínyang^1 Jia^1], the Ying-Yang School, or the
"Cosmologists," where the theory of the fundamental opposites, yín
and yang^1, was developed. Like the theory of the gun.as in India,
the theory of yín and yang^1 was eventually adopted in all Chinese
thought, and the Yin-Yang School ceased to be a separate entity
(if it ever had been).
2. Ming Chia [Míng Jia^1], School of Names, the "Debaters" or
"Sophists." this contains a variety of thinkers who were concerned
with issues of language, logic, and meaning. Kung-sun Lung
(c.320-250 BC) is once supposed to have replied, when told that he
could not travel on a certain road with his horse, that his horse
was white and that because the rule mentioned horses and not white
horses, it did not apply to him: "A white horse is not a horse."
This leaves us in no doubt why some members of the School of Names
can be called "Sophists."
3. Mo Chia [Mò Jia^1], School of Mo Tzu [Mòzi^3] (479-381 BC),
Mohism. Mo Tzu was an early critic of Confucius. Although
Confucius teaches both righteousness (yì) and love (rèn), Mo Tzu
believed there was far too much emphasis on duty and too little on
love. Mo Tzu also rejected Confucius's distant attitude towards
religion. That is somewhat ironic, since Confucianism actually
became a religion precisely by absorbing traditional religious
practices. Mo Tzu advocated a kind of Utilitarianism, called
Mutual Profitableness: "Righteousness is that which yields
profit...Mutual love produces mutual profit....Common good arises
from loving and profiting others....God must like to see men
loving and benefiting one another." Confucius might not have
rejected this himself, but his references to profit are mostly
disparaging and the Confucian tradition came to strongly
disapprove of profit as a motive or of its pursuit as an activity.
Even Mo Tzu did not advocate any sort of individualistic pursuit
of profit. He saw it all, like Utilitarianism itself, as a matter
of producing "the greatest good for the greatest number."
4. Fa Chia [Fa^3 Jia^1], the Legalist School. The Legalists rejected
the Taoist and Confucian ideas that government must be based on
morality and that good government must foster, in one way or
another, moral dispositions in the people that will then
automatically make them behave well. The Legalists thought that
government was simply a matter of laying down laws and then
punishing people, mostly by execution, who did not obey them. This
school achieved great historical significance when its views were
adopted as official policy by the "First Emperor," Shih-huang-ti
[Shi^3huángdì] of the [8]Ch'in [Qín] Dynasty (255-207) [[9]1].
Shih-huang-ti had a ferocious and ruthless disposition that found
the advice of the Legalist philosopher Li Szu [Li Si] agreeable.
In 213, on Li Szu's urging, Shih-huang-ti outlawed all other
schools of thought and began to burn their books. This may be why
more is not know about the "Hundred Schools." Scholars who
resisted the order were executed: 346 (or more) are supposed to
have actually been buried alive [[10]2]. The fall of the Ch'in
Dynasty soon thereafter was later seen as proof of the working of
the [11]Mandate of Heaven.
5. Tao-Te Chia [Dàodé Jia^1], Taoism. The philosophical beginnings of
Taoism in the [12]Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu (named after
Chuang Tzu, c. 369-c.286 BC) later curiously led to Taoism growing
into one of the three classical religions of China (the "Three
Ways"), as Taoism picked up many popular, especially magical
beliefs (things like Chinese geomancy, feng shui, the art of
discovering auspicious positions and orientations for homes,
furniture, businesses, graves, etc.), monastic practices from
Buddhism (to the disgust of Confucians), and especially a body of
alchemical research whose purpose was to bring about immortality.
Taoists thus worshipped a group of deities, the "Immortals," who
were supposed to dwell on distant blessed islands. The idea that
mercury, because it preserved bodies so well in embalming, would
be part of an elixir of immortality led to many deaths, including
perhaps that of Shih-huang-ti himself, from mercury poisoning.
6. Ju Chia [Rú Jia^1], School of the Literati, Confucianism.
[13]Confucius, K'ung-fu-tzu [Kong^3fu^1zi^3] (551-479 BC) becomes,
long after his death, the dominant Chinese philosopher both
morally and politically. Mencius (Meng Tzu) (c.390-305 BC) extends
and systematizes Confucius's ideas; but, with Confucius's adoption
in the [14]Hàn Dynasty as the official moral and political
doctrine of the State, the Confucian tradition became so broad
that "Scholar" or "Literatus" became all but synonymous with
"Confucian." And as one of the "Three Ways," together with Taoism
and Buddhism, Confucianism grew into one of the traditional
religions of the Hàn Chinese [[15]3]. Confucius himself had a
simple moral and political teaching: to love others; to honor
one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is of
advantage; to practice "reciprocity," "don't do to others what you
would not want yourself"; to rule by moral example instead of by
force and violence; and so forth. Confucius thought that a ruler
who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler. This was
not a principle that Chinese rulers always obeyed, but it was the
ideal of benevolent rule. During the [16]T'ang Dynasty, the canon
of Confucian Classics became the basis for the great civil service
examinations that henceforth provided the magistrates and
bureaucrats for the Chinese government. This system is still
impressive, but it was not always to good effect. The founder of
the [17]Míng Dynasty (1368-1644) Chu Yüan-chang, an illiterate
peasant who rose to expel the Mongols and win the throne, was
suspicious of the influence of the scholars. He tried to balance
the scholarly with the military establishment so that the scholars
would not dominate the government. Later, when the Chinese sent
Admiral Chêng Ho [Zheng He], a Moslem eunuch who started out as a
war prisoner slave, on seven great naval expeditions into the
Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433, it was the scholars who
powerfully opposed engaging in anything so lowly as trade and
dealing with such uncivilized barbarians. The expeditions, indeed,
visited not only Indonesia and India, but penetrated into the
Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and far down the east coast of Africa.
The fleets were large, heavily manned, well armed, and contained,
reportedly, ships of nine masts that were more than 400 feet long.
But when the court faction of the scholars triumphed and ended the
expeditions, they also destroyed their records and made it a
capital offense to build anything larger than a two-masted ship.
This crippled Chinese trade and foreign involvement; and one is
left to wonder just how world history would have been different
had Vasco da Gama arrived in the Indian Ocean in 1498, just 65
years later, to discover an overwhelming and technologically equal
or superior Chinese naval presence. In China itself, the scholars
indeed went on to dominate the government and tip the balance
against the military, which left the country so unprepared that in
1644 the last Ming emperor was forced to call in Manchuria to deal
with a rebellion. The Manchus took advantage of this to take over
the country; and so the final Chinese Dynasty, the [18]Ch'ing
[Qing^1] (1644-1912), wasn't Chinese at all. This was probably not
what the scholars would have wanted, but they had certainly
brought it about. Curiously, the Ch'ing adopted scholarly
sensibilities and retained Ming naval and maritime policy
xenophobia. This left China once again helpless when forces
technologically superior to the Portuguese, especially the
British, eventually arrived, irresistibly pressing for commercial
access to the country. The scholars never did adapt, and the
examination system was eventually abolished rather than
modernized.
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Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 [21]Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights
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THE "SIX SCHOOLS" OF JAPAN
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The "Six Schools," Rokushû, in Japanese history are the speculative,
doctrinal, and disciplinary schools of Buddhism that existed during
the [22]Nara Period, 710-794, when a permanent Japanese capital was
first established, at Nara. These represent a mix of speculative
metaphysics from India with a couple of important Chinese schools. The
first three never really existed as distinct institutional entities
and did not embody any novel religious doctrine or practice. The
treatment follows Earl Miner, Hiroko Odagiri, & Robert E. Morrell, The
Princeton Campanion to Classical Japanese Literature [Princeton
University Press, 1985, p. 369-385].

1. Kusha, introduced in 658. This is the Japanese representative of
the Indian Hinayâna Sarvâstivâdin school, which held the
metaphysical doctrine that reality consists of an infinite number
of real, momentary entities or dharmas. In India the Vaibhâs.ika
subdivision held that the dharmas are directly perceived, the
Sautrântika that they are indirectly perceived. This ultimately
was not important in Japan;
2. Jôjitsu, introduced in 625; held that the dharmas don't really
exist. Not important either;
3. Sanron, introduced in 625. This is the Japanese representative of
the important Indian Mahâyâna Mâdhyamika School. Nagârjuna
(c.150-250), perhaps the greatest Buddhist philosopher in India,
held that the dharmas neither exist nor don't exist--an
application of the Four-Fold Negation. There is thus only
Emptiness, Shunya. This was not institutionally important in
Japan, but most subsequent Japanese schools regarded Nagârjuna as
one of the most important figures in the history of Buddhism;
4. Hossô, introduced in 653. This is the important Vijñânavâdin or
Yogâcâra School from India, which held that Consciousness was the
only reality. Hossô is a minor school but still with an important
center at the Kôfukuji temple in Nara;
5. Ritsu, introduced in 754, focused on Buddhist monastic discipline
(the vinaya). This was institutionally important only as it was
revived in a Shingon version (Shingon Risshû) by Eizon (1201-1290)
at the Saidaiji in Nara; and
6. Kegon, introduced in 735. This is the important Chinese Hua-yen
School of Fa-tsang (643-712). Its institutional base, still at the
magnificent Tôdaiji temple in Nara, was the most important of its
time, but its subtle metaphysics failed to attract much popular
following.
The Six Schools expanded to Eight in the [23]Heian Period
(794-1185), when the capital moved permanently to Kyôto:
7. Tendai, the important Chinese T'ien T'ai School brought back from
China by Saichô (767-822) in 805. Tendai became the
institutionally and politically dominant form of Japanese Buddhism
when Saichô began what later turned into a vast establishment of
temples and hermitages (the "Three Pagodas and Sixteen Valleys")
on the sacred mountain, Mt. Hiei, looming over the city of Kyôto
to the northeast. Most of the Kamakura schools were essentially
spinoffs from Tendai, which emphasized Nirvân.a in this life, the
power of the Lotus Sutra (Myôhô-Renge-kyô), and devotion to the
Buddha Amida; and
8. Shingon, the Esoteric or Vajrayâna school brought back from China
by Kûkai (Kôbô-Daishi, 774-835) in 806. Kûkai is a legendary
figure in Japan, often supposed to still be walking alive among
the living and working miracles. Shingon became established at the
important Tôji temple in Kyôto and at the site of Kûkai's tomb on
Mt. Kôya -- where the sage sits in meditation, either mummified or
deathless, as one prefers.
During the Period of the [24]Kamakura Shôguns (1185-1333) the
traditional number of schools expanded to Twelve:
9. Zen, the important Chinese Ch'an School, first successfully
brought from China by Eisai (1141-1215) in 1192. In 1227 Dôgen
(1200-1253) founded the important Sôtô branch of Zen. Both men had
also studied at Mt. Hiei;
10. Jôdo, "Pure Land," Sect founded by Hônen (1133-1212) in 1174. The
most popular form of Buddhism in Japan. The first "single
practice" sect, with exclusive devotion to the Buddha Amida;
11. Jôdo Shin, "True Pure Land," Sect, founded in 1224 by Shinran
(1174-1268), who married, taught salvation by faith alone (in
Amida's Vow), and consequently has been called the "Martin Luther
of Japan"; and
12. Hokke, "Lotus," or Nichiren Sect, founded in 1253 by Nichiren
(1222-1282), who taught salvation by faith in the Lotus Sutra,
especially by invoking its title in the mantra "Namu
Myôhô-Renge-Kyô".

All the Kamakura schools were more interested in practice than in
speculative metaphysics and consequently came to dominate popular
religion.
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The "Six Schools" of Chinese Philosophy, Note 1
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Shih-huang-ti came to the throne as Wang Cheng in 247, changed his
name, inventing the title of Emperor, after the unification of China
in 221, and died in 209.

[29]Return to text
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The "Six Schools" of Chinese Philosophy, Note 2
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Mao Tse-tung is reported as saying in 1958:

What's so unusual about Emperor Shih Huang of the Chin Dynasty? He
had buried alive 460 scholars only, but we have buried alive 46,000
scholars....We are 100 times ahead of Emperor Shih of the Chin
Dynasty in repression of counter-revolutionary scholars.

Mao is often compared, not surprisingly, to Shih-huang-ti.

[30]Return to text
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The "Six Schools" of Chinese Philosophy, Note 3
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To be contrasted, for instance, with the Huí Chinese, who are simply
those who practice Islam, which is not one of the Three Ways. Since
huí can also mean "Turks" or "Uigers," Moslem Chinese obviously were
thought of as the equivalent of foreigners. Confucians originally
thought of Buddhists as similarly un-Chinese; but Buddhism became so
popular after the fall of the Later Hàn Dynasty (220 AD) that, by the
time of the Suí (590-618) and T'ang [Táng] (618-906), it was accepted
as properly Chinese.

[31]Return to text

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